TI Question...heard this and doesn't sound right...
Former Member
I am teaching a stroke clinic class at the YMCA. My background is USS competitive swimming (ages 8-18) and some age-group coaching. One of my students, a triathlon trainer, has been to Total Immersion. Because of his TI training, he is doubtful of any stroke correction I am giving him. Basically he has the typical problems of a short stroke...entering too close to the head and not pulling thru.
The TI triathlete is telling me that the TI "Fish" style swimming technique says the hand should enter the water just in front of the head, then reach forward. In my opinion, he needs to lengthen his stroke, rotating and reaching as far forward as possible, entering out front (not by the head). I am thinking he is mixing up some TI drill with proper freestyle SWIMMING technique. He at least agreed with me when we talked distance per stroke (and started believing I know something about swimming)...but I don't see how you can maximize DPS with hand entry by the head.
Can someone shed light on this for me? What is this "Fish" swimming in a couple sentences? And where does TI say the hand entry should be?
Thank you!!
P.S. I'm new here and enjoying reading...I swim masters and hope to compete in butterfly someday...I'm waiting it out until I get a bit older so can face the competition. My butterfly has held out better than my other strokes (used to be a long distance freestyler too).
P.P.S. I did a search on TI and read some of the posts but they didn't quite get to my specific question above.
Parents
Former Member
Gareth, I think that I ammend my post below:
Originally posted by Ion Beza
...
Maybe the article in the Swimming World magazine from January 2000, is the same article that I am reading right now from the Swim magazine of March/April 2000.
The article from the Swim magazine has eight pictures under the title 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"'.
It says:
"The following photos, using former short course world champion Francisco Sanchez of Venezuela, are a fairly good approximation of the Australian stroke."
Captions under the eight pictures do emphasize what you are describing.
Picture number four (picture on the right, in the second row), does show a straight right arm, fully extended closely above the water, before entering the water to catch and pull.
However, the caption under this picture doesn't mention the straight arm, so what Swim magazine and you describe in 'Australian Crawl', that is the definition of the 'Australian Crawl'.
by getting back to my initial knowledge:
'Australian Crawl' is swimming with straight arms.
Swim magazine from March/April 2000, has 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"', like I mentioned, and eight pictures of Francisco Sanchez (Ven.) demonstrating the 'Australian Crawl' with captions that I studied more.
Figure one (left, top row) and figure four (right, second row), show pictures of Sanchez swimming with straight arms.
The caption under figure four, says:
"Vision is downward, and the head is carried low in the water with full reach forward with the recovering arm."
"...full reach forward with the recovering arm..." under picture 4, that's the straight arms I am talking about.
So, the 'New Australian Crawl' is shoulder shift forward with the lead arm, "...the catch in the stroke is begun with shoulder and upper arm remaining high, and the forearm and hands almost perpendicular to the surface of the water...", and is straight arm reaching forward.
Like I saw Klim in videos.
Gareth, I think that I ammend my post below:
Originally posted by Ion Beza
...
Maybe the article in the Swimming World magazine from January 2000, is the same article that I am reading right now from the Swim magazine of March/April 2000.
The article from the Swim magazine has eight pictures under the title 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"'.
It says:
"The following photos, using former short course world champion Francisco Sanchez of Venezuela, are a fairly good approximation of the Australian stroke."
Captions under the eight pictures do emphasize what you are describing.
Picture number four (picture on the right, in the second row), does show a straight right arm, fully extended closely above the water, before entering the water to catch and pull.
However, the caption under this picture doesn't mention the straight arm, so what Swim magazine and you describe in 'Australian Crawl', that is the definition of the 'Australian Crawl'.
by getting back to my initial knowledge:
'Australian Crawl' is swimming with straight arms.
Swim magazine from March/April 2000, has 'Fairly Good Sequence Illustrating the "New Australian Crawl"', like I mentioned, and eight pictures of Francisco Sanchez (Ven.) demonstrating the 'Australian Crawl' with captions that I studied more.
Figure one (left, top row) and figure four (right, second row), show pictures of Sanchez swimming with straight arms.
The caption under figure four, says:
"Vision is downward, and the head is carried low in the water with full reach forward with the recovering arm."
"...full reach forward with the recovering arm..." under picture 4, that's the straight arms I am talking about.
So, the 'New Australian Crawl' is shoulder shift forward with the lead arm, "...the catch in the stroke is begun with shoulder and upper arm remaining high, and the forearm and hands almost perpendicular to the surface of the water...", and is straight arm reaching forward.
Like I saw Klim in videos.
